40. Ancient Medicine & the Love of the Ancestors - Atava Garcia Swiecicki

We each carry our own unique ancestral medicine, and can (and should!) spend a lifetime uncovering it. A teacher of herbal, folk, and indigenous medicine, Atava is deeply grounded in and a powerful guide through this sacred work.

IN THE INTRO:

Synchronicity, mushroom medicine, and the deer dress
Herbal Medicine Giveaway
Ancestral Apothecary's Student of Color Scholarship Fund- investing in herbal education is investing in the health of your community
The Ancestor Song

IN THE INTERVIEW:

Invocation
When an ancestor becomes an ally from the other side
How to know when it's really a message from spirit and not just our own projection
Food as the one surviving cultural tradition within a family
Remembering your indigenous mind
How giving time and attention to our roots can heal relationships among the living
Ancestral connection and reverence work never ends
Healing is in our bones, our blood, our DNA
Being witnessed in our stories
Remembering that the plants are (literally) our ancestors
Using plants to ground deeply when talking about and facing ancestral issues like colonization and slavery- we're never alone as long as we have our plant allies
Making space for people of color to explore and reclaim their ancestral medicine
Teaching healing skills so that people can treat those within their own communities and not need saving from elsewhere
Herbalists are the grassroots community healers
You're going to be a better herbalist and healer if you're rooted in your own ancestral traditions
We all come from people who work with plants
Love is the basic fundamental vibration that keeps the universe moving- how love and community saw Atava through uterine cancer & remembering to reweave the energy of love back into the healing arts
A beautiful death: how the love we give and receive in this life carries us into the realm of the ancestors